Requesting Resources for Projects

Resource requests, also called resource demands, are part of the resource planning and allocation process. Project Managers and Process Managers with Manage Process rights can make requests for the resources required for a project, either by stage or across an entire project. Project Managers can request a general resource, for example, a chemist or a quality assurance expert, or can request that specific Accolade user be part of the project. Make requests in your company's chosen unit of measure for resources within a pool, for example, full time employee (FTE).

After a request for a resource is made, Resource Planners, who are tasked with managing how resources are allocated across projects, assign resources to meet the requests, balancing the resource availability, both individually and pool-wide, against the demand on them from projects.

Project Managers can do the following:

• Request resources for a single project from within the project Resources page.
• Request resources for one or more projects using the Resource Requests page.
• Request resources using a document based on a Resource Plan template.

Request Resources from Within a Project

Project Managers can request resources for a project from within the project's Resources page. Users with access to the project can also use the Resources page to review the resource requests and allocations currently assigned to the project. Resources requested through the project pages are also available for review and modification within Resource Editor.

To request a resource from within a project:

1. Display a project and select the Resources page.
2. Do one of the following:

• To view a resource for a project stage - In the Plan For field, select the specific stage.
• To view a resource for the entire project - In the Plan For field, select Project.

Pools with existing requested or assigned resources display. Click to expand the display and view the requested or assigned resources.

On the project's Resources page, click the or icon next to a pool name to view the demand history of the resources in that pool. indicates that the Project Manager made the most recent change to requests for the pool. indicates that a Resource Planner made the last change in the pool. Click Mark the Pool as OK to clear the notification, so any subsequent indicates a new change to resources for the project from the Resource Planner.

3. In the Pool field, select the resource pool from which you want to request resources.

You can request resources from any resource pool.

4. In the Resource Availability section, select the check boxes next to the resources you want to request.

The Resource Availability section displays the resources within the pool, and the availability for each time period. If a resource displays a negative availability number, that resource is over allocated for that time period.

Select general resources, such as Any Chemist or Any Quality Assurance Engineer, if you do not require a specific person but require specific expertise.

5. Click Add to Resource Plan.
6. Repeat steps 2-5 as necessary to add additional resource requests for your project.
7. For each resource in the Resource Plan section, enter the required demand for each time period for the project. More...

   • To edit a single value - Click a yellow shaded cell in a time period column and enter a value.
   • To copy a value to multiple periods - If the same value applies to multiple periods across the row, click in the cell and click or press Shift +. Enter the number of consecutive periods to copy the value to, and click OK. The value is copied to those periods, even if they are beyond the viewable area of the screen.
   • To copy and paste a pattern of values from a spreadsheet - Highlight the cells to be copied in your spreadsheet and press CTRL+C. Click into the project Resources page in Accolade, then click and drag to highlight the destination cells and press CTRL+V to insert the copied values.

   Note:  In the project's Resources page, multiple cells can be copied from a spreadsheet and pasted into Accolade. In order to paste in correctly, the number of cells copied from the spreadsheet must match the number of highlighted destination cells in Accolade.

You can request a partial demand, such as 0.50 full time employees (FTE).

8. Click Apply to save your changes.

Request Resources Using Resource Requests

Project Managers can request resources for projects that they manage using the Resources Requests page, which provides a means to request resources for multiple projects at a time.

To request resources for one or more projects using the Resource Requests page:

1. From the Workspace menu, select Resource Requests.
2. Display projects or demands and apply filters as necessary.

Use the or options to expand or collapse a row or grouping. To expand or collapse all rows or groups displayed, use the and option in the table header.

On the Resource Requests page, the or icon next to the resource indicates the fulfillment status for the resource. indicates that the demand request is fulfilled. indicates that the demand request is not or is only partially fulfilled.

3. Click next to the project name for which you want to request a resource.
4. In the Add New Demands dialog box, select the resource(s) to request for the project in the Available Resources list, and the project to which to assign them in the Available Projects list.

To view only the resources or projects that currently have no demands, select the Restrict to No Demands check box.

To assign the selected resource(s) to multiple projects, select multiple projects in the Available Projects list. The project you clicked in is selected by default.

5. (Optional) To request duplicate resources for a resource/project combination, select the Allow Duplicate Demands check box.

Leave this check box clear if you want to request demands for only the resource and project combinations that currently do not have demands allocated to them.

6. Click OK to display the requested resources in Resource Requests.
7. Repeat steps 2-6 as necessary to add additional resource requests for your projects.

Once all resource requests are completed, use the icons and color shading on the page to help identify what requires your attention.

• New requests display with and resource names or project names in bold (depending on how you are viewing information in Resource Requests).
• Light blue shaded Project rows - Indicates requested demands.
• Light green shaded Project rows - Indicates assigned demands.
• Yellow shaded cells - In general, indicates areas of the page that you can edit, for example, the Multiplier cell. In addition, yellow shaded cells in Project rows indicate time periods that are within the project's timeline.
• Light gray shaded cells - In Project rows, indicates time periods that are outside of the project's timeline. Gray shaded cells can be edited, but will not recalculate project dates based on resource changes.

Important! A project's timeline is defined by its start and end dates. If these dates are not defined, Accolade uses the first and/or last defined project gate dates to apply shading. If only one project date is defined, or the project does not have any dates defined, all time period cells will be shaded gray to indicate that the project's timeline is undefined.

• White cells - Indicates cells that are view-only.

8. For each resource, enter the required demand for each time period for the project. More...

   • To apply a demand curve - Select the demand curve to be applied. This will automatically set the Effective Period to the current time period and will adjust the resource request's demand.
   • To modify current and future demand curve resource values - Enter a value in the Multiplier column that is larger or smaller than 1.00. The multiplier is applied to all values except those before the effective period.
   • To edit a single value - Click a yellow shaded cell in a time period column and enter a value.
   • To copy a value to multiple periods - If the same value applies to multiple periods across the row, click in the cell and click or press Shift +. Enter the number of consecutive periods to copy the value to, and click OK. The value is copied to those periods, even if they are beyond the viewable area of the screen.
   • To copy a pattern of values to a different range of cells in Accolade - Click and drag to select a range of cells containing values, press CTRL+C, then click and drag to select a different range of cells and press CTRL+V.
   • To copy and paste a pattern of values from a spreadsheet - Highlight the cell to be copied in your spreadsheet and press CTRL+C. Click into the Resource Requests page in Accolade, then click to highlight the destination cell and press CTRL+V to insert the copied value.

   Note:  From the Resource Requests page, only one cell at a time can be copied from the spreadsheet and pasted into Accolade.

To enter comments about your requests, click in the row and enter any information regarding your requests or modifications. Note that if Portfolio Optimizer is used to manage resources, comments are removed when resources are committed from Portfolio Optimizer back to Accolade.

9. Click Apply to save your changes.

Notes:    To delete a request in the project Resources page, select the line in the Resource Plan section and click Delete Entry. To delete a request in Resource Requests, click next to the requested resource under a project. Deleting a demand row deletes all demand assigned within that row, even if it is not visible in the displayed time period. The row is removed when you click Apply. Click Reset to undo the deletion prior to applying changes. When a project becomes inactive (through Close, Hold, or Kill actions), resources for the current and previous time periods will display as read-only on the project's Resources page, and future requested and assigned demands will not display on any resource page. If a project becomes active again, the requested and assigned demand values will display from the current time period forward. The length of a time period within Resource Requests (weeks, months, quarters, or years) is defined in the Administration Console when Accolade is installed. Resource Planning is an optional Accolade component that you may not have access to. To implement this solution, contact Sopheon Customer Support .